Liverpool returned to winning ways against Bournemouth in impressive style at the Goldsands Stadium on Wednesday evening, reaching the Capital One Cup Semi Finals with a 3-1 victory.
Courtesy of a Raheem Sterling brace and a Lazar Markovic effort sandwiched between, Brendan Rodgers' team progressed to the next round with a fantastic first-half performance. Dan Gosling scored a consolation for the hosts, which briefly buoyed them - but they were made to rue missed chances as they crashed out valiantly after a spirited second-half display.
Bournemouth started off promisingly in the early minutes, and Eddie Howe's side could have led within four minutes. Callum Wilson showed fantastic individual control, to pull a ball down outside of the box. He found space and worked his way past Martin Skrtel from 15-yards, before beating Dejan Lovren but from six yards, one-on-one, slid his shot well wide of the post.
Up the other end, Adam Lallana - who once spent a month on loan at Bournemouth before making his name at Southampton - tested Artur Boruc with a rasping drive from distance. The £25 million summer signing found space and sent a 25-yard effort towards goal which the goalkeeper did well to palm over the crossbar.
From there on in, the Reds continued to gain an increasing foothold in the game. The Liverpool midfield forced Bournemouth into chasing shadows as they played the ball about the park with confidence, but they couldn't take advantange - with many of their shots being well blocked despite fluid play in possession.
Eventually, after such a dominant start, Liverpool took a deserved lead in the 20th minute as Sterling netted his first goal since September. After splendid build-up, involving 29 passes in total, Lazar Markovic sent a terrific ball towards the back post from the left flank, where Jordan Henderson headed back across the six-yard box for the waiting 20-year-old to flick a cool header towards the bottom corner from close-range after getting away from Tommy Elphick.
After the first goal, Liverpool were thoroughly on top. The Premier League side began to display the confidence and swagger of the passing football they so impressively executed throughout last season, something which has been a rare sight in their stuttering 2014-15 sign, and they soon added to their goal.
Central defender Elphick made another defensive error after someone whistled in the crowd. The defender suffered a lapse in concentration, thinking Mark Clattenberg had whistled and ruled for offside. He turned his back on play, allowing Philippe Coutinho to force Boruc into sprawling at the near post with a low strike. The ex-Southampton keeper managed to steer his shot to the edge of the box, where Markovic ran onto the loose ball and kept his composure to curl a well-placed effort into the bottom corner to double the lead.
The Cherries could and should have responded directly from kick-off. Straight up the other end, Yan Kermogant found himself with a golden opportunity to immediately cut the deficit after a cross landed at his feet eight yards out. But with the goal at his mercy, he could only direct his effort over Brad Jones' crossbar - the second time that the Championship side missed from close-range.
Afterwards, the Reds began to really enjoy themselves and saw their two-goal advantage comfortably into the interval in what was an excellent first 45 minutes for the visitors. At half-time, Dejan Lovren was forced off with a groin injury and was replaced by Mamadou Sakho, making his comeback after a lengthy spell out with a groin injury of his own.
Soon after the restart, the Reds put themselves further in-front after great teamwork again. Adam Lallana released Sterling through and after neat footwork to deceive two defenders that stood in his way, he rolled an excellent effort into the far corner for his second of the evening to extend the lead to 3-0.
Markovic, who had impressed throughout, continued to play a huge role. He sent his shot wide of the post after cutting inside to try and find the far bottom corner in the 52nd minute, and only minutes later wasted a good opportunity to set Sterling on the way to a hat-trick. Rather than feed the youngster through on goal, he looked across the other side of the pitch towards skipper Steven Gerrard who then opted to look for Sterling, but his cross was deflected out for a corner-kick.
Chances were in abundance, with Lallana teeing up Coutinho on the edge of the box but despite tricky footwork, the Brazilian could only send an effort wide of the post. But shortly before the hour mark, Bournemouth worked their way back into the game.
After Mamadou Sakho was slow to get out to Matt Ritchie on the left and he sent a cross to Dan Gosling on the edge of the area. The ex-Everton midfielder, who sent Liverpool out of the FA Cup third round in extra-time back in 2009, did superbly well to bring the ball under control before beating a number of defenders to subsequently drill an effort past Jones to make it 3-1. It was a poor moment for Rodgers' side who had so far been much the better side, as the stand-in Aussie struggled to keep the effort out.
With that, the hosts gained some much-needed confidence and were claiming for a penalty after Sakho's perfectly-timed tackle against Wilson inside the area. Just seconds later, the Cherries came extremely close to cutting the lead down to just one after more unconvincing keeper from Jones. Half-time substitute Ryan Fraser directed a looping header from the back post, but could only see the effort whistle narrowly wide.
After excellent teamwork once more, Sterling's finishing was this time lacking in the 66th minute. Coutinho found his way into the box and after failing to find the space to shoot, cut the ball back to Lallana. The English international backheeled into the path of Sterling who found himself in yards of space from just six yards and should have notched his first senior hat-trick, but his effort was well wide.
The game continued in dramatic end-to-end fashion, with Gosling close to finding a second with 20 minutes left. After Harry Arter cut inside and drove into space outside the box, he cut a clever ball into the feet of Gosling who did well to find space away from his marker. But from inside the area, his effort smacked back off of the post and after Liverpool's defence desperately struggled to clear, they watched on in agony as Ritchie sent a drive wide of Jones' far post from inside the box.
Sensing the opportunity to trouble Liverpool, who noticably panicking, Howe's side continued to push for an equaliser. With the Reds looking frail at the back, Rodgers opted to introduce Emre Can to help add some necessary steel and physicality in the midfield as the final quarter of an hour ticked down. Switching to a back five, he set his side up to sit back and contain the second-tier side.
Bournemouth looked to have lost their momentum going into the final minutes, with Simon Francis glancing a shot over the crossbar before forward Brett Pitman came on for Eunan O'Kane with less than 10 minutes remaining, but it made no real difference.
Sterling almost capped off the performance with a third goal of his own late on, but his dipping volley was always going over Boruc's bar. In the final moments, Fabio Borini replaced Steven Gerrard having not even made the matchday squad in the previous few games, as the Reds grinded out a victory to go through to the Capital One Cup Semi Finals.